title: High prevalence of asthma and atopy in the Canary Islands, Spain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the prevalence of and risk factors for asthma and related conditions in the Canaries, Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  From a randomised sample of 9506 adults aged 20-44 years who answered a short questionnaire, a random sample corresponding to 20% of the original was taken. Subjects classified as symptomatic in the previous survey and who were not included in the random sample were also invited to participate. The subjects completed a respiratory questionnaire, and underwent spirometry, bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) test, skin tests and immunoglobulin E (IgE) measurements.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The random sample included 593 subjects. The prevalence of skin sensitisation to mites was 30.3% (95%CI 26.7-34.2) and the prevalence of IgE to mites 30.5% (95%CI 26.2-35.2). A prevalence of 40.6% (95%CI 35.9-45.5) was found for atopy, 14.1% (95%CI 11.1-17.1) for BHR and 4.2% (95%CI, 2.5-5.9) for asthma. The risk factors most strongly associated with asthma were atopy (OR 4.89, 95%CI 3.07-7.78) and respiratory infection before the age of 5 years (OR 2.78, 95%CI 1.66-4.67).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows a high prevalence of sensitisation to mites, atopy, BHR and asthma in the Canaries, similar to that observed in English-speaking countries. We suggest that these findings could partially result from climatic conditions.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neumología, Hospital Universitario Dr Negrín, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. jjulser@gobiernodecanarias.org
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Juliá-Serdá
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cabrera-Navarro
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Acosta-Fernández
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martín-Pérez
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Losada-Cabrera
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: García-Bello
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Carrillo-Díaz
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Antó-Boqué
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002980:Climate; D006801:Humans; D006969:Hypersensitivity, Immediate / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000276:immunology*; D015995:Prevalence; D039981:Pyroglyphidae / Q000276:immunology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000379:methods; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013147:Spirometry; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D007073:Immunoglobulin E